Trail Seems to Have Grown Cold on Flurry of Recent Mitrice Sightings in Las Vegas

Greg Amerson, a former high school friend who claimed to have seen Mitrice Richardson in Las Vegas, NV, shown here with the missing woman, then 15, at a winter formal event held ten years ago (Courtesy: Malibu Surfside News via Latice Sutton)

What gets me is, why didn’t this guy Greg Amerson immediately contact the authorities about his seeing what he thought was Mitrice Richardson at a bar in the Rio Las Vegas Hotel?

How would Mitrice have gotten to Las Vegas, even if she did know some people in the area?

And why are the cops now so certain that Mitrice may be in Las Vegas, supposedly pursuing her new profession as a hooker despite their putting down a previous report by her father?

Richardson’s aunt, Lauren Sutton, told The News she received a call from the father of the man—then a teenager—who had taken Richardson to her tenth-grade winter formal. He has not seen Richardson since she was 15, according to her family, but Greg Amerson is reportedly adamant that he saw the missing woman in Las Vegas in June.

Amerson reportedly told family members that he was in the lounge of the Rio Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, an older resort on Flamingo Road, a short distance from the Las Vegas Strip.

Although there appear to be time variations in versions of the story that have been told, Amerson said he was in the lounge of the Brazilian-themed casino, when he noticed a woman sitting at the bar and talking to people. The woman was wearing a white dress and heels. Sutton was told that he thought the woman might have been soliciting.

Sutton said that Amerson told his father that he walked over to her and reportedly said, “Hello, Mitrice.” He said the woman looked surprised, and then hurriedly left the location without saying anything.

Amerson did not notify the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department or anyone else that evening because he didn’t know Richardson was still technically missing. He told his family about the incident several days later, and it was another few days before the father called Sutton.

So much time had elapsed since the alleged sighting that the film in the casino’s security cameras had been erased—this is done every six days—and possible corroboration of whether the woman in question was Richardson was no longer available.

The aunt immediately got hold of Richardson’s mother, Latice Sutton, who contacted Lt. Rosson, Sutton’s main contact at the LASD in recent weeks. He jump-started the dispatch of personnel to Las Vegas that at one time comprised 10–12 detectives following up on the lead, including Rosson.

The specifics of the announcement expected later this week are being kept under wraps. As of Tuesday afternoon, Richardson’s mother was awaiting more information about the public statement slated to be issued in Las Vegas. The final details of the announcement were expected to be finalized on Wednesday.

When there was the report of a Las Vegas sighting by the father in January, it was indicated that Richardson knows people in Las Vegas. In addition, she had visited there in August, a month before the Geoffrey’s incident, but her mother adamantly says, “In my gut, I do not believe Mitrice is in Las Vegas.”

“Please let us know you’re OK,” Whitmore said of their message to Richardson. “You’re not in trouble. You’ve done nothing wrong. You are not the subject of a criminal investigation. You will not be arrested.”

Michael Richardson said he believed his daughter might be involved in prostitution in Las Vegas, and might be under the influence of someone preventing her from contacting friends and family. He issued his own plea for her to contact him.

“Come home,” he said. “If you can, come home. Let’s get this over with. Come home.”

The police and sheriff’s officials said Thursday that a $25,000 reward is being offered by the City of Malibu and Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas for information about Richardson.

They said most of the 70 reported sightings reached investigators months or weeks after the fact, and they dismissed a report by Richardson’s father that he saw her on a street in a gritty neighborhood of low-budget motels east of downtown Las Vegas as too little to go on.

“Other than possibly seeing her walk down the street we had nothing else to follow up on,” McClure said. “We don’t have that sighting that says, ‘She’s standing here right now, come on down.’ We have not gotten that.”

But since last week’s flurry of activity, there has been nothing. Nothing.

I think Amerson’s supposed sighting was incorrect.

I think that if Mitrice is alive, she would be in the Los Angeles area, if she made it that far. And I think that she would not be in her right mind if she were.

If Mitrice is being held against her will by certain people, whether in Vegas or in L.A., there would be even more of a reason for those people to keep her quiet and even sequestered by gunpoint. Why? Because they are forcing her to prostitute herself against her will for money. She would be naming names, places and dates, if she is in her right mind. Nevada has no scruples about this kind of thing, but last I heard, California wasn’t too happy about pimps or prostitutes. There are also Federal statutes about transporting women across state lines for sexually nefarious doings, regardless of what kind of laws are on the books allowing for prostitution.

I’m running out of time here at the Library, but I’m working through back articles on the Mitrice case. Stay tuned.

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